Sunday, 14 August 2011

Contest Finalist! The Catherine 2011

The Catherine, formerly known as the Golden Opportunity contest, is organised by the Toronto Chapter of the RWA. The Catherine is the second contest I've entered. You can read about the bitter sweet results from my first contest in an earlier post.

This time however, I've made it to the finals of the Historical Romance category.

Pleased?

I'm over the moon!

Obviously, a finalist doth not a winner make, but to be honest getting really positive feedback on my story is such a thrill that I feel like a winner anyway. At the very least, I feel like I'm on the right track.

For the finals, I get to submit a revised version of the manuscript. As my original submission was from quite an early draft, I have revised it considerably. And then revised it back. And then revised it again. All in all I've revised those first two chapters so much that they feel like a rather threadbare patchwork quilt or an overworked lump of dough.

I have no idea if they're any good any more at all.

So keep your fingers crossed for me.

I started focusing on writing last spring and Merely Players is my first completed manuscript. It has been a HUGE learning curve. With lots of revisions still ahead of me, I would love it to do well.

Getting to the next stage would give me a massive boost when I'm sitting up late at night, gritty eyed and stoked with Earl Grey tea trying to get that sentence just right and horrifyingly aware that my daughter will be up in five hours demanding her breakfast.